Shell for a protective helmet

ABSTRACT

An improved protective shell for a helmet, the shell comprising angled panels forming pyramid-like surface structures covering the surface of the helmet. Each pyramid-like structure comprises three or more panels conjoining to form an apex. In one embodiment, each of the panels is a triangle having a base and a point that conjoins adjacent panels, thereby forming the apex. The limited number of apex points and the orientation of the angled panels reduce the probability that an impacting object will deliver a square blow to the helmet. The probability is increased that such blows will be only glancing in nature, thereby reducing the severity of the blow and head injury to the wearer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 61/829,623, filed on May 31, 2013, theentire contents of which are incorporated herein by this reference.

BACKGROUND

(1) Technical Field

This invention relates generally to protective headwear, and moreparticularly to an improved outer shell for a helmet, where the shellreduces the wearer's head trauma caused by impact to the shell.

(2) Background

Protective helmets are intended to reduce the wearer's head injuries orhead trauma caused by impact to the helmet. Injury causing impact forcesare delivered by impact from a variety of objects, such as fallingobjects at a construction site, colliding helmets of opposing footballplayers, or flying projectiles such as baseballs or other objects.Protective helmets are worn by construction workers and participants inmany sports, such as football, baseball, lacrosse, bicycling, horsebackriding, skateboarding, skiing, and many other sports and events. As oneexample, football and other contact sports can be a highly dangerousactivity due in part to extreme forces impacting players in the headregion. To reduce injury, football organizations mandate the use ofsafety helmets. The use of helmets can greatly reduce the trauma andresulting injury associated with blows to the head. Many footballplayers and other athletes suffer concussions, memory loss, spinal andneck injuries, and similar conditions during games and practices.Although players wear helmets, the helmets are not ideally designed toprevent as many injuries as possible. There is a need for improvedsafety helmets for athletes.

The present invention is directed to an improved protective helmet, andmore specifically to an improved outer shell that reduces the force ofimpact transferred to the wearer's head.

SUMMARY

The present protective shell comprises an arrangement of flat panelsoriented a different angles to form intersection points, or an apex, atlocations where three or more panels intersect. In one embodiment, thepanels are triangles that form a multi-sided pyramid-like feature on thesurface of the shell, where the pyramid culminates at the apex. In thisembodiment, the pyramid could have three or more sides, or panels, foreach apex. Each panel comprises a base and a point, with the respectivepoints conjoining at the apex. The base of each panel has a shorterradius from the center of the helmet than does the apex. The shellcomprises multiple apex points dispersed about the outer surface of theshell.

In another embodiment, the shell comprises at least three flat surfacepanels, wherein three or more panels conjoin at a common point, each ofsaid three or more panels being oriented in a different plane such thatthe common point forms an apex in relation to the conjoining three ormore panels. In this embodiment, the panels are polygons having or moresides. An apex can be formed by combining panels of differently shapedpolygons, such as by conjoining three different panels havingthree-sides, four-sides, and six-sides, respectively.

The irregular surface caused by the raised apex points minimizes thepoints on the shell where the helmets of opposing football players cancollide in square contact or substantially square contact. The presentshell increases the probability that opposing football players willdeliver only glancing helmet-to-helmet blows to each other, therebyreducing the probability that the wearer of the helmet will experienceserious head trauma or injury.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a side view of a typical helmet comprising one embodimentof the protective shell taught herein.

FIG. 2 shows a front view of a typical helmet comprising one embodimentof the protective shell taught herein.

FIG. 3 is a cross section view of a typical helmet comprising oneembodiment of the protective shell taught herein.

FIG. 4 is a partial cross section view showing the geometry of typicalimpact of two helmets comprising one embodiment of the protective shelltaught herein.

FIG. 5 is a partial cross section view showing the geometry of typicalimpact of two helmets comprising one embodiment of the protective shelltaught herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference to the drawings, the invention will now be described withregard for the best mode and the preferred embodiment. In general, theprotective shell disclosed herein is configured for reducing head traumacaused by impact with another helmet or projectile. The embodimentsdisclosed herein are meant for illustration and not limitation of theinvention. An ordinary practitioner will appreciate that it is possibleto create many variations of the following embodiments without undueexperimentation.

Protective helmets, and therefore the present protective shell, aretypically fitted to the wearers head, and these helmets are thereforesubstantially spherical or substantially round in shape. For thepurposes of this discussion, the term “center” refers to the geometriccenter of the spherical or round helmet, and the term “radius” refers tothe linear distance from the center to a given point.

The present protective shell is suitable for use with a variety ofprotective helmets, such as helmets used in the construction industry ora variety of sporting events, such as football, baseball, biking,skiing, and other activities. For the purposes of discussion andillustration of the protective shell, and not for the purpose oflimiting the scope of the invention, the following description is setforth in the context of football helmets. An ordinary practitioner willreadily appreciate that the principles of the protective shell discussedherein are suitable for adaptation to any of the foregoing uses, as wellas many others.

Football is a sport that requires a high degree of athleticism, and dueto the unpredictable player maneuvering in the game any player could behit in the helmet from any angle at any time. However, the traditionalplayer alignment on the field and the athletic fundamentals of the gamedictate that the majority of head impact events experienced by footballplayers are to the forehead area, top of the helmet, and the back of thehelmet. For example, ball carriers often lower their heads when beingtackled, thereby exposing the forehead area and the top of the helmet toimpact from the helmet of the tackler. As another example, receivers arefrequently hit from behind when catching a pass, and these players oftenreceive impact to the back of the helmet. In short, although any pointon a football helmet can receive contact, there are certain zones of thehelmet that are struck more frequently and more violently than others.The present shell 10 is therefore adaptable in these high impact zonesin order to minimize the head trauma experienced by players receivinghead impact.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the outer surface of the shell 10comprises an arrangement of flat panels 20 oriented a different anglesto form intersection points, or an apex, 21 at locations where three ormore panels 20 intersect. For most embodiments of the outer shell, theapex 21 is generally located at a greater radius from the center of thehelmet than any point on the panels 20 that form the apex 21.

In one embodiment, the panels 20 are triangles that form a multi-sidedpyramid-like feature on the surface of the shell 10, where the pyramidculminates at the apex 21. In this embodiment, the pyramid could havethree or more sides, or panels 20, for each apex 21. Each panel 20comprises a base 22 and a point 23, with the point 23 culminating at theapex 21. The base 22 has a shorter radius from the center of the helmetthan does the apex 21. In other embodiments, the shell 10 comprisespanels 20 that are polygons having more than three sides, such aspentagons, hexagons, octagons, or the like. Referring to FIG. 3, theshell 10 overlays the conventional padding 11 of the football helmet.

The shell 10 comprises multiple apex 21 points dispersed about the outersurface of the shell 10. Adjacent apexes 21 may have bases 22 in contactwith each other, or there may be a space or gap between the respectivebases 22. The radius of each apex 21 is selected to ensure that eachapex 21 is raised a sufficient distance from its base 22 such that thepanels 20 create a pronounced irregular surface of the shell 10.

In another embodiment, the shell 10 comprises at least three flatsurface panels 20, wherein three or more panels 20 conjoin at a commonpoint, each of said three or more panels 20 being oriented in adifferent plane such that the common point forms an apex 21 in relationto the conjoining three or more panels 20. In this embodiment, thepanels 20 are polygons having 3 or more sides. While the number of sidesvaries according to the optimum use of the particular application,three-, four-, five-, six-, or eight-sided panels 20 are suitable formost applications. An apex 21 can be formed by combining panels 20 ofdifferently shaped polygons. For example, an apex 21 may be formed byconjoining three different panels 20 having three-sides, four-sides, andsix-sides, respectively.

The irregular surface caused by the raised apex 21 points minimizes thepoints on the shell where the helmets of opposing football players cancollide in square contact or substantially square contact. Morespecifically, conventional football helmets have a substantially smooth,round surface. Because of this geometry, there are theoretically aninfinite number of points on the surface of a conventional footballhelmet that can receive square contact from the helmet of an opposingplayer. Square contact occurs when the impact force vector caused by theopposing player is perpendicular to the surface of the receivingplayer's helmet. By contrast, the present shell minimizes the number ofpoints on the helmet where opposing players can deliver respectivehelmet-to-helmet blows in which the respective force vectors areperpendicular to the surface of the shell 10. In other words, thepresent shell 10 increases the probability that opposing footballplayers will deliver only glancing helmet-to-helmet blows to each other.Due to the glancing nature of these blows, the magnitude of the impactforce is reduced, thereby reducing the probability that the wearer ofthe helmet will experience serious head trauma or injury.

Referring to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the glancing nature of the impactvectors is illustrated. When two helmets 31, 32 collide, a first helmet31 delivers a blow described by impact force vector I. If the collisionoccurs at an apex 21 on the respective helmets 31, 32, then theresulting force to the players' heads is no more severe than for playerswearing conventional football helmets. However, there is a very lowprobability of the contact point occurring at the apex 21 points on therespective helmets 31, 32. Instead, off-center collisions, illustratedin FIG. 5, are much more common. In these off-center hits, the impactvector I delivered by the first helmet 31 delivers only a glancing blowto the second helmet 32. More specifically, the apex 21 of the firsthelmet 31 contacts the angled panel 20 of the second helmet 32. Thus,instead of a perpendicular force vector n delivered to the secondplayer's head, a force vector p is delivered. The magnitude of force pis lower than the magnitude of force n because the impact vector Icontacts the second helmet 32 at an angled orientation than glances offof the angled panel 20 of the second helmet 32.

The present shell 10 is suitable for use with other safety features ofconventional football helmets, such features including padding,accelerometers to measure the severity of impact, dampers to reduce thedynamic effect of impact, or other such devices. The panels 20 in theshell 10 are made of a durable hard material, such as fiberglass,plastic, carbon fiber, or other such material. The material should behard enough so that it does not crush under the magnitude of impactforce vector I.

The foregoing embodiments are merely representative of the protectiveshell and not meant for limitation of the invention. For example, onehaving ordinary skill in the art would readily appreciate that there areseveral embodiments and configurations of the panels 20 and apex 21points that render the shell adaptable for alternate uses. Consequently,it is understood that equivalents and substitutions for certain elementsand components set forth above are part of the invention describedherein, and the true scope of the invention is set forth in the claimsbelow.

I claim:
 1. A shell for a protective helmet, where the shell is intendedto deflect the impact force caused by objects striking the helmet, saidshell comprising: a plurality of surface pyramids, each pyramidcomprising three or more panels, each panel having a base and a point,wherein in each pyramid the points of the panels conjoin at the apex ofthe pyramid.
 2. The shell of claim 1, wherein the shell comprises atleast one three-sided pyramid.
 3. The shell of claim 1, wherein theshell comprises at least one four-sided pyramid.
 4. The shell of claim1, wherein the shell comprises at least one five-sided pyramid.
 5. Theshell of claim 1, wherein the shell comprises at least one six-sidedpyramid.
 6. The shell of claim 1, wherein the shell comprises at leastone eight-sided pyramid.
 7. The shell of claim 1, wherein the helmet hasa geometric center, and at least one pyramid has an apex that is atradius from the center that is greater than the radius of the base ofthe panels that form the pyramid.
 8. A shell for a protective helmet,where the shell is intended to deflect the impact force caused byobjects striking the helmet, said shell comprising: at least three flatsurface panels, wherein three or more panels conjoin at a common point,each of said three or more panels being oriented in a different planesuch that the common point forms an apex in relation to the conjoiningthree or more panels.
 9. The protective shell of claim 8, wherein theshell further comprises a plurality of apexes.
 10. The protective shellof claim 8, wherein at least one of said panels is a three-sided panel.11. The protective shell of claim 8, wherein at least one of said panelsis a four-sided panel.
 12. The protective shell of claim 8, wherein atleast one of said panels is a five-sided panel.
 13. The protective shellof claim 8, wherein at least one of said panels is a six-sided panel.14. The protective shell of claim 8, wherein at least one of said panelsis an eight-sided panel.
 15. A shell for a protective helmet, where theshell is intended to deflect the impact force caused by objects strikingthe helmet, said shell comprising: at least three flat surface panels,wherein three or more panels conjoin at a common point, each of saidthree or more panels being oriented in a different plane such that thecommon point forms an apex in relation to the conjoining three or morepanels, wherein said panels are made from a hard material adapted todeflect an impact force of an object striking the panels.
 16. The shellof claim 15, wherein at least one of said panels is a three-sided panel.17. The shell of claim 15, wherein at least one of said panels is afour-sided panel.
 18. The shell of claim 15, wherein at least one ofsaid panels is a five-sided panel.
 19. The shell of claim 15, wherein atleast one of said panels is a six-sided panel.
 20. The shell of claim15, wherein at least one of said panels is an eight-sided panel.